Biography Flibbertigibbet
Flibbertigibbet is an old English word referring to a flighty or whimsical person, usually a young female. In modern user it is used as a slang term, especially in Yorkshire, for a gossipy or overly talkative person.
It may also may refer to two separate cultural figures:
In Anglo-Saxon mythology Flibbertigibbet is apprentice to Wayland Smith Wayland the Smith, who becomes exasperated with his behaviour and throws him down a hill, where he transforms into a stone.
In Shakespeare he is one of the five fiends that possessed 'poor Tom' in King Lear (IV, i (1605)). Shakespeare got the name from Samuel Harsnet's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), where one reads of 40 fiends, which Jesuits cast out and among which was Fliberdigibbet, a name that had been previously used by Latimer and others for a mischievous gossip. Elsewhere the name is apparently a synonym for Puck. Its origin is in a meaningless representation of chattering. World Wide Words
FolkloreCharacters in written fiction
Flibbertigibbet
It may also may refer to two separate cultural figures:
In Anglo-Saxon mythology Flibbertigibbet is apprentice to Wayland Smith Wayland the Smith, who becomes exasperated with his behaviour and throws him down a hill, where he transforms into a stone.
In Shakespeare he is one of the five fiends that possessed 'poor Tom' in King Lear (IV, i (1605)). Shakespeare got the name from Samuel Harsnet's Declaration of Egregious Popish Impostures (1603), where one reads of 40 fiends, which Jesuits cast out and among which was Fliberdigibbet, a name that had been previously used by Latimer and others for a mischievous gossip. Elsewhere the name is apparently a synonym for Puck. Its origin is in a meaningless representation of chattering. World Wide Words
References
External links
- Flibbertigibbet's heel mark
- Kenilworth passage mentioning Flibbertigibbet
- Word of the day at dictionnary.reference.com
FolkloreCharacters in written fiction
Flibbertigibbet
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flibbertigibbet
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
Links
http://www.sonorika.com/flibbertigibbet/biographyhttp://www.bioandlyrics.com/flibbertigibbet
